The Human Family

 

Rich Beyond Measure

“One of the biggest, most damaging mistakes too many Christians so willing make is assuming that God is as much of a judgmental jerk as we are…”

John Pavlovitz (A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community)

          Anthropomorphic: “Having human characteristics.” We do this with our pets, with other creatures that live around us, and we do it with that which we call God. We assume that God loves what we love, hates what we hate, and thinks like we do. Of course, we will deny this, but it shows up in our behavior towards people who are different from us. I have been told by fundamentalist Christians that their way is the only true way. They hold firm that billions and billions of human souls will “burn in hell for all eternity” for not believing Jesus is the only son of God. For me, that is a truly primitive religion. To believe that others are somehow not as precious as we are and therefore it’s okay to treat them with brutality is not a religious concept. It’s a human concept based in deep-seated bigotry—so deep-seated that we don’t recognize it for what it is. And then we compound our error by believing that God thinks that way, too.

          The Sacred Table is bigger than that. It’s big enough to include all of creation as equally valuable and precious to the Divine Source. Diversity of life is part of creation. It is part of the world as it is. It is reality. The Source of Life does not pick or choose—we do. It doesn’t discriminate, we do. It doesn’t hate its own creation, we do. The Creator gave us many paths to the same destination. Just as there are oak, pine, hickory, and maple trees growing here on the little plot of ground I call home, there are human beings of all colors, creeds, and religious beliefs living around me. And that is as it should be. And it is beautiful.

Can you imagine a world with only one kind of everything? A world in which birds sing only one song, flowers bloom in only one color, leaves have only one shape. How about a world in which there are only almonds—no walnuts, pecans, cashews, pistachios, or hazelnuts. Where there is only one kind of fish in the sea, only one kind of dog by the hearth. Me either. Our world is rich with diversity. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane